Today pace of living introduces a lot of stress into human lives. Stress affects one's performance at work, interaction with co-workers and family members. In some situation stress may turn into depression that may cause a person to loose interest and pleasure in daily activities and impair functioning of one's daily life.
Relaxation is a key to an effective stress relief. One of techniques that may be utilized to relief stress is acupuncture. Acupuncture can be described as an insertion of very fine needles into the skin at specific acupuncture points in order to influence the functioning of the body. One of the popular alternatives to acupuncture is acupressure. Acupressure is a non-invasive method of massage therapy constituting pressing of acupuncture points, i.e. acupoints, on human body. Stimulation of the acupuncture points is performed by a practioner using his/her fingers or an instrument with a hard ball shaped head.
The human body comprises 365 acupoints. Some acuppoints are located at the back of the human head and are known in acupuncture as the “heavenly gate”. Four points constituting the “heavenly gate” are located at the base of the skull, underneath the occipital ridge, as illustrated in FIG. 7. When pressure is applied to these acupoints, a deep state of relaxation may be reached within minutes. The location of these points does not allow a person to effectively self-apply pressure to the heavenly gate's acupoints. Thus, help of another individual is necessary. However, one may be faced with situations where it is impractical, if not impossible, to find another individual who will be able and willing to apply pressure to the heavenly gate acupoints in order to reach a deep state of relaxation.